On Sentence Diagramming and Theology

One of my friends posted the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence this morning, with the suggestion that we try to diagram it.  One of my graduate courses in the Teaching of English was called The Structure of Modern English.  We were required to dissect very long sentences to understand their underlying structure.  The class was extremely difficult, but as I discovered when I began teaching foreign students, it was also extemely useful.  Once I understood how the language was working, I could understand why some structures did not work.  It was so much better for me as a teacher to show the students why their constructions did not work instead of just saying, "it doesn't work that way."

Obviously, I cannot dissect the opening sentence of the Declaration here, but just separating the clauses increases the meaning significantly.  Watch:

When in the course of human events,

it becomes necessary for one people to dissovle the political bonds

which have connected them with another,

and to assume among the powers of the earth,

the separate and equal station

to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,

a decent respect to the opinions of mankind

requires that they should declare the causes

which impel them to the separation.

Who knew that the subject and verb of the opening sentence was "respect requires"?  Once we set aside the opening adverb clause, and see the core of the sentence, we can finally understand that our Declaration of Independence represents an obligation to mankind -- to declare the motives and reasons for the actions we are about to undertake.

Before I opened FB this morning, during my prayer time, I had been "diagramming" our relationship to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.  I may have to work on the diagram today and post it tomorrow, as my post would become too long to include it today.  But here's my reason for the diagram:  our theology matters as much to our faith as understanding sentence structure does to our writing.  If we don't understand how language works -- that is, as a student learning a new language -- we might say something like "I see the red."  A native speaker knows that we can say, "I see red," or "I see the red wagon," but we cannot say, "I see the red."  A non-native speaker does not understand the significance of the article "the."  He does not understand why that sentence does not "work." 

Theology is like that: it helps us understand why some ideas about God do not "work" as well as others.  It gives us understanding of where we stand in the presence of God and overcomes the erroneous fears and ideas that were implanted in us along the way, ideas that separate us from the love of God and keep us bound in chains.  One of my neighbors said to me one day, "I don't know if anyone is good enough to go to heaven."  Now that is just wrong theology, but that's what he was taught.  And that's what keeps him from receiving the free and loving outpouring of God's spirit into the "unworthy" vessel of his heart. 

That is why revelation is so important; we cannot depend on our 'surface reading' of the Declaration of Independence or of what we were taught.  We must do the difficult work for ourselves of taking apart the Scriptures under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, and letting the full meaning of God's word penetrate our minds and hearts.  It means 'going to school' every day and opening our minds and heart to the understanding that God wants to give us.  Once the Spirit of God begins breaking apart the Word of God, and showing us what it means, we are suddenly catapulted into worlds of understanding we did not know existed. 

Our own 'Declaration of Independence' lies hidden in the Scriptures, if we only knew it.  With the freedom offered us by the Scriptures, we are finally able to cast off the bonds which have connected us to slavery and become free and independent sons of God in Christ Jesus.